1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telephone answering systems and more particularly to such systems which can play outgoing messages as well as recorded incoming messages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Telephone answering systems for interconnection to telephone lines are well known in the prior art. These systems operate as attachments to existing telephone handsets to automatically answer a telephone when the subscriber is unavailable or not present at the location. Most such telephone answering systems contain a pre-recorded message which informs the caller of the absence of the subscriber and requests the caller to leave a message after the sounding of a particular signal, such as a beep. The telephone answering system records the incoming message as dictated by the caller and then releases the line to thereby "hang up" the telephone. Some more advanced telephone answering systems are voice operated, whereby there is no predetermined limit on the incoming message, but the voice control permits the caller to speak for as long as he wishes. After a caller has stopped speaking, the system will sense the absence of the voice and will release the line.
The owner, upon his return, can then rewind the tape stored in the telephone answering system and play back the recorded messages. Some telephone answering systems permit remote control by the owner, wherein, he can dial his own phone number and after the telephone answering system responds, the owner sounds a signal from a pocket unit which he must carry. The unit emits a frequency tone which is received by the telephone answering system and causes the telephone answering system to play back the messages recorded during his absence.
The prior art telephone answering systems are concerned with providing the capability of receiving messages left by various callers for the owner. However, a problem which has heretofore not been faced by prior art telephone answering systems concerns the capability of the owners leaving particular messages for various callers. For example, there are frequently occurring situations where the owner must leave the premises but wishes to leave messages for various people whom he knows will be calling in. He has no way of reaching the people and would desire to leave the messages on his telephone so that when they call in, each one will receive his particular message. With prior art systems, the owner could leave such a message as the outgoing message. However, each and every caller who would call the owner's telephone number would then receive the same message. This may be both embarrassing as well as inconvenient, and often the owner wishes that only the particular caller for whom the message is intended should be the one hearing the message.
Another situation which frequently occurs is in connection with a group of doctors, lawyers, or other professionals working together and having a common receptionist for taking messages. When the receptionist leaves the office, each person would like the capability of calling into his office and receiving only his messages; he has no desire to hear the messages being left for his colleagues. Frequently, as with doctors or lawyers, such messages may contain privileged information which should only be given to the particular professional and should not be heard by others. To achieve such individual message service in prior art systems, it was necessary for each individual to have a separate telephone number with a separate telephone answering system connected thereto and for him to call into his own telephone number to receive messages being left only for him. This, as can well be appreciated, results in an extremely costly and unnecessary duplication of equipment and apparatus.
Another frequent situation which occurs is in connection with individual families, where a parent which wants to leave messages for his children or other members of his family. With prior art systems, it was necessary to record the messages consecutively on the outgoing message tape. The caller would then have to listen to all of the messages, even though many of them did not relate to him. Still a further situation occurs with salesmen belonging to a single company who wish to leave messages for each other. The salesmen are frequently on the road and would like the capability of calling into a central telephone number and being able to direct a message to a particular other salesman without having every single member of the firm listen to the message.
While these are only some example, it becomes evident that telephone answering systems of the prior art have been extremely limited in their capabilities, by only providing the possibility of callers leaving messages for the owner. It is apparent that to be truly versatile and accommodating for all situations, a telephone answering system must also be able to store messages directed to particular callers and have the caller be able to receive his particular message without the burden of listening to all of the other messages.
In addition, such systems should also provide the capability of easily changing the individual messages from a remote location. For example, the owner may have to leave his office in a hurry and not have an opportunity to leave a message for a particular caller. Subsequently, when he remembers that he must leave such a message, the owner should be able to have the capibility of permitting the owner to call into his own telephone and have the telephone answering system record the messages for each particular caller. When the caller telephones the owner, the answering system will then be able to play the message for that particular caller. Also, the system should be able to provide the ability of having the caller leave a particular message to the owner in response to the owner's message, whereby others should not be able to listen to the caller's reply message but have it restricted to only the owner or, to a particular other caller, as desired.
Such capabilities, of course, can provide security, whereby only a particular caller will be able to receive his message and no other callers will be able to intercept or intervene with that message. Such security capabilities are frequently important in industrial use and professional activities, as well as individual family use where information may be desired to be restricted from certain members.